Schools throughout the world need to handle countless numbers of students arriving and being dismissed each day. With this, there are constant changes occurring with the arrival and dismissal of students, shown in the form of parent notes, emails, voicemails, and more. Due to such a large quantity, many of these updates are often lost, causing confusion as certain parties are not informed of the changes. With or without changes, afternoon dismissal is often chaotic and noisy, increasing the already long parental wait times and delayed bus departures.
To alleviate some of these issues, inventors have developed software systems that manages the dismissal of students. One such example is US patent application US20130162397A1, which assigns unique identifier tags to vehicles that are detected upon arriving at a school. When detected, electronic messages are sent to classrooms, notifying students that they are ready to be picked up. Another such invention is, “CarRiderPro,” which works similarly to US20130162397A1. The problem with systems like these is that they lack flexibility, are not suited to handle complex changes relating to carpool, bus, and afterschool activity changes, and are limited in their means of vehicle ecognition.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to introduce a new student dismissal system, more commonly known as, “School-Pass.” The present invention is a software system that manages the arrival and dismissal of students. Student safety and campus security will increase, while automated techniques will reduce the dismissal time for students and drivers (parents, bus drivers, etc.). Authorized drivers are assigned a unique automated identification numbers (Unique IDs), which could be a carpool number signs, toll tag number, license plate number, or RFID tag integrated into any of the aforementioned ID tags. A carpool record in a database can have multiple drivers and multiple families attached. Students are then attached to the carpool record via a carpool schedule, which can be managed by parents or school staff, by day, driver, student, and more.
When the unique ID is detected, notifications are sent to the classroom or dismissal location or staff members alerting them of the driver's arrival. The student will be scheduled in the classroom or dismissal location with instructions of where to go and how long it should take to get to the pickup area. Additionally, gates may be programmed to automatically open, security alerts may be dispersed and more. The system incorporates the use of an arrival/dismissal change management module, which may be used online and on remote smart devices. This module can be used to record arrival and dismissal changes by parents and staff. These changes are merged into the dismissal instruction when the driver is verified. Students not leaving with carpool or bus drivers are managed in an after-school activity module, allowing parents and staff to enroll students into these activities. Overall, the present invention is safe and effective, as it reduces parent wait time by up to 65%, reduces total dismissal time by about 50%, reduces administrative time by thousands of hours, improves bus departure times by 60%, reduces traffic congestion, and includes easy 3-5 day implementation. The present invention offers real-time parent ETA notifications, assists with on-time bus departures, and reduces traffic impact. Unlike other systems, the present invention is unique as it handles complex carpool schedules and incorporates the use of toll tags and license plates for the purpose of driver/vehicle identification.